Chamber and committees

I am afraid that I did not hear any kind of plan there.

I thank Labour for bringing the debate to the chamber; we will support its motion, of course.

In March, I welcomed Kevin Stewart to his new role as transport minister—Presiding Officer, I am getting a bit of an echo when I speak.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. Boats, trains, planes, automobiles and the A9 all matter—without a properly functioning transport system, the country does not work, so I wish Fiona Hyslop all the very best.

We are finally about to fill the job in the Government that no one apparently wanted. Humza Yousaf has managed to conjure up a ferry-like delay in replacing Kevin Stewart, who was the latest in a long line of Scottish National Party figures to decide, for whatever reason, that it was not for them. Of course, I wish Mr Stewart all the best, and I have told him that now

Transport is seen as the poisoned chalice of Government, but only because everything goes wrong under the SNP, so let us hope that someone of Fiona Hyslop’s clout can get it right. I was going to say that I thought that it should be a Cabinet position, but I am pleased to see that Màiri McAllan is getting transport in her brief.

I am delighted that Fiona Hyslop has got the job, because it needs someone of her experience with a proud record of delivery—for instance, the last time that she was in the Government, she announced another delay to ferries 801 and 802, telling Parliament in August 2020 that the Glen Sannox would be delivered between April 2022 and June 2022, with 802 planned for December 2022 to February 2023. She was quite adamant, Presiding Officer.

We know that the SNP is in hock to the Greens, but this new ministerial recycling scheme is evidence that it is in it all the way. It is a kind of governmental deposit return scheme, except that we do not get the 20p back when we have finished with the minister.

I know that—[Interruption.] I honestly know that Fiona Hyslop and I can work well together. We have become firm friends on the Economy and Fair Work Committee. She has invited me along to see the cycle park in her constituency, and I look forward to cycling around the course with her. It is important that we work together. Boats, trains, planes—[Interruption.]

What did canteen Keith Brown, last seen stirring up constitutional grievance—

Will the cabinet secretary give way?

I apologise.

What did Keith Brown, last seen stirring up constitutional grievance in a members’ business debate and making a spurious point of order, have to hide? Quite a lot, I suspect. Is it not significant that none of the saga’s key players who still belong to the Parliament are here today to face the music?

It is a sorry saga, indeed, with no ferries yet and hundreds of millions of pounds of our money squandered. And for what? It is all because the SNP was hellbent on giving the yard the contract, even though it plainly was not the right thing to do. However, it gave ministers—including Humza Yousaf, Mr Mackay and the selfie queen herself, Ms Sturgeon—the chance to get their pictures taken in hard hats. The most infamous of those was taken in 2017 at the fake launch by Nicola Sturgeon, which is known as the painted-on windows launch. Six years later, there are still no ferries. My advice to anyone who has to take a decision on it is to keep SNP ministers well away when the Glen Sannox is actually launched into service, which I hope will be next year.

As the committee said, there has been a shroud of secrecy hanging over aspects of this matter. There was the meeting between the discredited former First Minister and Jim McColl, for which there is no minute. Craig Hoy was quite right to say that she might have broken the ministerial code, but we have a broken system, whereby the First Minister marks their own homework and that of wayward ministers. That must change.

We have discovered through FOI that a meeting between Transport Scotland and CMAL officials on 29 September 2015—just days before Ferguson’s was awarded the contract—was also not minuted. Whatever could the reason be for such an oversight?

We know that the SNP members of the committee tried to water down the report. That is not their job, and they should be ashamed of themselves. No amount of spin and bluster can hide the fact that this is the biggest public spending scandal of the devolution age. The project was cleared once John Swinney was sure that there were no “banana skins”, but there were so many banana skins that you would think that the vessels had already sailed to South America and back. Chance would be a fine thing—Arran would do. All the time, the islanders are without a ferry and the costs go up and up.

We had the BBC “Disclosure” programme claiming that Ferguson’s was given preferential treatment when it won the contract. We now learn that it would be cheaper to start again than to complete vessel 802 at Port Glasgow. However, we have not been told the figures, so we cannot assess that decision. That would amount to transparency, and this Government does not do transparency.

To listen to SNP members today, with the exception of Alasdair Allan, we might think that nothing had gone wrong and the Government had done nothing wrong. At least we have had some plain talking from Craig Hoy, Neil Bibby, Willie Rennie, Brian Whittle and—the only Green in the chamber this afternoon—Jamie Greene.

We need to look to the future. What does the future hold for the yard? Again, trying to get an answer on that from the Government is absolutely impossible; Mr Gray will not tell us what he thinks the future holds. We have had the project Neptune report, but we do not know what his conclusion is. We do know that there is still a bottomless pit and a blank cheque, and it seems that that will go on and on.

I thank the Public Audit Committee for an excellent report. Rarely has there been such a scathing committee report, but rarely has there been such a scandal to report on—in fact, in my view, there has not been one.

The committee blasted what it called “significant failings”—that is rather stating the obvious. It said that

“vessels are now millions of pounds over budget and years behind schedule”

and that

“Scotland’s taxpayers and island communities have been badly let down by many of those involved in the project”,

which is correct. It said that there was a

“lack of transparency and accountability”.

There was the issue of the lack of a builders refund guarantee and ignoring CMAL’s wish to retender. The committee questioned the former First Minister’s

“decision to publicly announce the preferred bidder”

when she did, and said that there is still “uncertainty” over

“which Minister had the final sign-off on the contract.”

The committee branded the programme steering group, which Transport Scotland led, as “weak and toothless”. Of course, there were meddling ministers, too, none of whom has taken the rap. A good quartet of fiddlers can make sweet music, but Mackay, Swinney, Brown and Sturgeon have struck a bum note with islanders throughout this sorry saga.

At least Mr Mackay came to the committee to give his side of the story, as did Ms Sturgeon. Sadly, efforts to pin down Keith Brown came to nothing, leading to the committee chiding him for his “lack of co-operation”. What did canteen Keith, last seen stirring up constitutional grievance—

I am just finishing, Mr Sweeney.

It is a scandal—the biggest scandal of the devolution age—and somebody has to take responsibility.

Is the cabinet secretary prepared today—as he has not been previously—to say how much it will cost to complete vessel 802 at the yard?

Will the member accept an intervention?